


Make the Stars Align (and Make Them Bright)

by rydellon



Series: a sky full of stars [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Confusion, Fluff, M/M, Minor Angst, Mystery, Summer Camp, Unresolved Romantic Tension, currently unbetad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 08:20:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19970926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rydellon/pseuds/rydellon
Summary: Chenle's only at camp for 2 weeks this year, and he's determined to spend those two weeks roping his best friend into figuring out whether their counsellor is dating the tripper or the Arts & Crafts counsellor.orChenle Zhong and Jisung Park in: The Mystery of the Camp Professionals





	Make the Stars Align (and Make Them Bright)

**Author's Note:**

> this is 100% both based off of my summer camp (down to every last fucking detail) and the longest thing i have ever written. thank you to the prompter for dragging me out of my shell like this.
> 
> if you recognize anything about the camp in this story stop reading immediately thank you so much.
> 
> that being said here’s [ **an explanation of how camp works** ](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVDr6_jffLV8S2WiDc9Jg1ywBefomPNkXKIcZVlchn8)
> 
> a big thank you goes out to the mods who were so so understanding towards my situation and were so gracious in extending my deadline.
> 
> another thank you to W for supporting me in the final stretch where i needed it most. those last 2000 were for you girl.
> 
> 67\. Camp AU where A, B, and C are counsellors who enjoy confusing the kids on who's dating who.
> 
> i hope i did this justice.

Chenle was always excited to go back to camp.

He always craved it during the year, moments where he was left alone, sitting quietly in his room while waiting for his parents to be done with their business meetings or their research or whatever was going on that day spent aching to get back on that plane that would take him to America, camp just one more step away after that.

He missed it all, the food, the outdoors, the lack of suits, the pure _freedom_ that he had there, so different from what he was used to the 11 months he stayed at home, in China.

And, of course, he missed his friends.

He could feel it now, the energy building up in him and getting released in the form of his leg shaking, making the auntie sitting next to him give him a dirty look. He smiles at her before turning to the window again, letting his thoughts fly by like the clouds in the sky beside him.

_Almost there_.

Even though his parents paid for his fights to and from America and a hotel room every year, they still made him go on the bus to and from camp.

Not that he minded, the bus up to camp was an amazing anxiety and adrenaline filled experience every year, where his emotions would take the reins and force his brain into some sort of state where they were controlling his actions. Half of the times he did something on the bus it landed him in Kangaroo Court. It was amazing. (The ride back was sad as hell, but at least he got to spend it with people he loved from camp, people he had become friends with over the past month or two weeks, whatever had fit into his parent’s schedule that summer.)

The hotel his parents always put him in was in the same parking lot where the bus would pick him up, and he always had a one night’s stay in there, taking a swim in the pool before going to bed restless and waking up a little bit (only 4 hours) early to start getting ready.

Ok, maybe he woke up a little bit too early.

At 10:30 he would always drag his bag out of the hotel, shoving his room key into the checkout box before leaving and walking across the parking lot to where he could see the bust.

After he checked in and took his less-than-usual spot as close to the front of the bus as possible (his usual spot was at the back, but this time he really wanted to get on the island fast. He knew most of his friends had come for a month so he would fight all those crying Driftwoods if that meant he could get to the island faster.)

The bus ride itself wasn’t that eventful. Chenle had a short conversation with Chanyeol about what had happened in the first two weeks of August (and subsequently a short freak out due to capture the flag being in the second two weeks this year.) He spent most of the time blocking out the screams of one distraught Driftwood at the very front of the bus with the playlist his best friend made for him last year. He must have fallen asleep sometime between getting farther on the highway and where they stopped for lunch, because he found himself being shaken awake at the campground pitstop, most of the bus already having filed out to eat lunch.

“We have some…snacks? For you,” Chanyeol said, as Chenle had revealed in their short conversation that he didn’t have a lunch. 

“Thanks,” Chenle said, pulling himself up and shuffling off of the bus, heading to the grass. He ate quickly, heading over to the campground’s washrooms before heading back to sit at a picnic table by the bus.

He let himself be ushered back onto the bus, the last stretch to the camp less than an hour away. Despite the newfound nervousness rushing through him, he managed to keep it at bay until they pulled up to the landing, where the boats that would take them to camp were docked.

Chenle watched some CITs walk up to the side of the bus. He leaned further over when he saw Renjun, but the older chinese boy didn’t notice him. The windows on the bus were tinted. He was too nervous for this.

“Chenle? First boat?” Chanyeol said, sending another wave of _oh god I’m really here_ down Chenle’s abdomen and making him fidgety. He shoved his headphones back into his bag.

“Of course,” he said, popping up from his seat and unclipping his life jacket from his bag, pulling it on over his sweater.

He smiled widely when he saw who was driving the boats, and let himself onto the dock, hopping into the larger boat with a group of Driftwoods.

“Chenle! What’s up? We missed you in the first two weeks,” Minho said, and Chenle gave him a high five.

“Yeah, there was some big conference I had to go to, lots of stuffy suits and even stuffier people,” Minho laughed, running a hand through his hair, “I missed it here too.”

Some CITs pushed the boat off of the dock (Chenle didn’t recognize them, they must have been July campers) and Minho sped off towards the island, Chenle leaning over the side of the boat to try and see the island early. It only took about a minute to get there, and by the time all of the smaller kids had noticed the colourful bunch of people on the rocks Chenle had been fixed on them for ages.

When Minho pulled up at the dock Chenle let the CITs there help the kids out first, the little boys filing off nervously on the dock, fiddling with their life jacket straps. Chenle remembered when he was like that, a small Driftie, his first time on the island (it still felt like his first time every time he came back, the nervousness and adrenaline all the same.)

He got out of the boat and smiled at Jaemin, who pulled him into a hug with a loud exclamation of “Chenle!”, grabbing the attention of various people on the rocks.

He smiled, feeling like his chest was about to explode as he walked up to Taeyong, who smiled at him.

“Welcome back, Chenle,” the camp director said, patting him on the back. Chenle shifted on his feet, face scanning the crowd for… _there._

“Glad to be back Ty,” Chenle said, smiling nervously. He glanced at Taeyong again before his eyes went back to the crowd. _Right there._

“Go,” Taeyong laughed, pushing Chenle towards the rocks, where his eyes locked on exactly the person he wanted to see.

He ran off of the dock, taking a singular step onto the rocks before launching himself straight into the arms of the person he had been missing for what felt like ages. Park Jisung, his best friend. He felt his nerves explode every place Jisung touched him, the Korean boy slipping his hands between Chenle’s backpack and life jacket and gripping tightly to the straps on there, Chenle in turn clutching to the back of Jisung’s salt-and-pepper camp sweater.

“I missed you so much,” Jisung said, and Chenle laughed a bit, burying his face into Jisung’s shoulder.

“I missed you too, sorry for not coming sooner.”

Jisung unwound his hands from Chenle’s life jacket, linking their arms and pulling him towards a group of amused looking Senior campers, almost tipping Chenle over from the sheer amount of stuff that was in his backpack.

“Chenle, hey, Jisung hasn’t stopped talking about you all month,” Mark Lee stood up to hug him and Chenle let himself be ushered out of Mark’s arms by Jisung, the rest of their (5 person, fuck) tent standing up to leave front rocks.

They stop at the friendship post, where Jisung points out his name and Chenle prints his own in neat under it, Jisung whining that he made him look bad with his ‘neat-ass rich boy writing’.

Then they headed to Section so that Chenle could drop off his things and the other 4 could leave to finish their activities for the afternoon before reuniting for dinner.

Chenle leaned over to Jisung halfway to Senior, right when they were passing by the Palace.

“Dude,” Chenle whispered, looking ahead to where Minghao was talking to Mark, “our counsellor is fucking Mark Lee.”

Jisung beamed, “hell yes it is, and I know you’ve been waiting your whole life for this. Well, whole camp life.”

Chenle smiles and links their arms again, head swivelling around and taking in the sights all around the island that had been absent from his life for the past year.

“But like, _Senior 12 Hot Twink Mark Lee_ Mark Lee,” Chenle whispers, and Jisung hits him on the arm making Chenle cackle.

“Jaemin has _not_ let me live that down yet and now you’re telling me you aren’t either?” He whines, and they both dissolve into fits of laughter, lasting until they reach Senior section.

“Here we are!” Mark announced, and Chenle smiled, running up the stairs to the tent and flopping down on the only empty bed there, in the back left corner and right beside the one he knew to be Jisung’s.

“Ok, so these four need to get back to monther’s day activities, but I can take you around and get all your stuff done, sound good?” Mark asks, and Chenle nods, waving at Jisung and his other tent mates (Minghao, Junhui and Jeongin, a solid lineup. Not like that year he had had Seunghyun in his tent. That guy was weird.) as they walked out of the tent and turned, heading towards sailing and the Lodge.

“So, Hot Mark Lee, huh?” Mark asks as soon as the others walk far enough away.

Chenle is sure his groan could be heard by the entire island.

—

They make their rounds, first to Patch’s (it was the closest), then to sign Chenle up for swimming (Splash Class, of course), then back to Senior to wait for the others to show up, Chenle deciding to use his time to unpack, as did the other 2-week Senior campers (only around 2 of them, really. Chenle thought the other’s name was Taehyung? Something like that? He was in Senior 4.)

Mark had decided to sit on the steps of Senior 6 as Chenle unpacked, watching the 14 year old make his bed with expert hands.

“You’ve been doing this for a while, yeah?” Mark asks teasingly, and Chenle glares at him.

“I remember when you were leader of Dream, don’t patronize me,” he says, making Mark laugh. The counsellor stands up and sits on the bed beside Chenle’s (not Jisung’s, someone else’s. Chenle has visited other people’s tents enough in all his years of camp to recognize Jeongin’s bear-covered comforter.)

“Jisung’s been spilling praises about you for the last two weeks. I didn’t plan on telling them that you would be the other person in our tent, actually I wasn’t really allowed to tell them, but Jisung had it ingrained into his head that either it would be you or I could go and change it myself and make it you. I think he might have cried when he saw me bring in that sign.” Mark gestures to the cute ladybug sign taped to the wall. It’s made out of construction paper and Donghyuck has known Mark Lee long enough to know he’s an arts and crafts disaster. He narrows his eyes.

“You can’t fool me. You may be Mark Lee but I’ve been going to camp for 8 years. Who made that sign?”

Mark looks at him, expression unreadable.

“I don’t know what you mean Chenle.”

“Oh, come on,” Chenle abandons his bed and walks over to the sign and inspects it, “you can’t expect me to believe that you suddenly got good at arts and crafts. It’s your one weakness. Who made it?”

Chenle lifts up the corner of the leaf under the ladybug.

“Oh! He was nice enough to sign it! _Donghyuck_. One of the A&C counsellors too, huh, scandalous,” Chenle teases, and Mark’s face lights up red.

“ _Anyway_ ,” he says forcefully, Chenle collapsing back onto his bed with a snort before remembering he hadn’t even ripped the rest of his stuff out of his bag yet and standing up, “back on topic, Jisung made you sound amazing, and maybe I would know more about that if you ever came to Canoeing, but whatever.” Chenle let out a _hey_.

“I’m sure you’re going to be amazing, just like he said,” Mark finishes, and Chenle turned to him as he put his hanging shelf up, starting to shove clothes into them.

“He said something?”

“No. Just the way he talked about you not being here…I could tell it was hard for both of you.”

“Well,” Chenle says, shoving the last bit of clothing into his hanging shelf before walking over to Mark and enveloping him in a hug, Mark’s arms automatically coming to wrap around Chenle as well.

“Jisung didn’t send me a letter in China full of complaints, so,” he pauses for dramatic effect, “I’m sure—and now I’m only judging on experiences no complaint letter remember—” Mark laughs, “I’m 100% certain you’re going to be amazing too.”

Mark pulls back and smiles softly at him, Chenle giving him an award winning smile back.

“So, wanna go put up my hammock?”

“Definitely dude, come on!”

Chenle fells that leftover adrenaline and nervousness from the morning flow out of his body, the weird sort of nervous idolization feeling he had felt around Mark earlier that day disappearing into something softer and appreciative, making him sure that these two weeks at camp were going to be some of his best yet.

— 

When Jisung came to find him, he was laying in his hammock, Mark having disappeared down the path towards the rest of camp some 5 minutes ago.

“Chenle,” he whined, plopping down next to him in the hammock, both of them in some sort of semi-sitting position, watching the lake and the boats pass by from the beautiful vantage point of the hammock.

“What’s up,” Chenle responds, threading their hands together. Jisung scoots over and places his head on Chenle’s shoulder.

“You didn’t text me during the year,” Jisung whispers. Chenle lets his eyes flit away from the sky for a second to focus on Jisung, whose eyes are still on the sky. Chenle looks back too. He squeezes Jisung’s hand.

“I’m sorry,” Chenle whispers back, and Jisung adjusts his head, rubbing it against Chenle’s neck.

“I get it, what happened this time?”

“They saw your number. They told me that I couldn’t focus on people who didn’t care about me and should focus on my future and marks instead. I’m sorry.”

Jisung sighs. Chenle can feel it rock his whole body, flying through his chest and his head straight down to his feet, which are pushing off of the little rock Chenle had positioned near the bottom of the hammock so that him and his short legs could reach and push it. Jisung could reach the ground alone but he still used the rock, maybe to make Chenle feel better about having short legs, maybe because he was lazy.

“It’s not your fault, Lele,” Jisung says, taking his head off of Chenle’s shoulder and pushing them both over so that they were laying down in the hammock, face to face. The afternoon sun lit up Jisung’s face as Chenle raised his hand to Chenle’s cheek, cupping it softly. “It’s not your fault.”

Chenle smiled sadly at him, feeling a lump building at the back of his throat. He would _not_ be crying, thank you very much.

They stayed there for another minute, Chenle breaking their eye contact to grip onto Jisung’s waist and shove his face into Jisung’s chest, inhaling the scent of camp off of his sweater. Jisung wrapped his arms around Chenle’s shoulders, sighing deeply.

The moment was broken around a minute later when Jungkook screamed Jisung’s name from the middle of the section, Jisung flinching so hard he sat straight up, jostling Chenle from his spot.

“Fuck, I promised Senior 10 I’d go to the Lodge with them to find out which table was Kibum’s we could bother him about losing at Camoflage this morning,” Jisung mumbled. Chenle laughed.

“Go, I’ll bud to get to the front when the bell rings,” Chenle says, and Jisung smiles widely at him, rolling out of the hammock as Jungkook yells his name again. He yells a “ _coming_ ” back and rushes up the hill from the shoreline, Chenle sitting back up in the hammock to continue his observance of nature.

A frog jumps off of a rock on the shore. A boat goes by. Chenle looks down at his hands and starts playing with his fingers, rubbing his fingertips together.

He sighs, getting out of the hammock and heading back up to his tent, flopping down onto his bed and looking over at Junhui, who were sitting on his bed. Chenle flopped onto his own after exchanging greetings with him, pulling a book out and scanning over it before he noticed that the bell was ringing in the background and Junhui had left.

He puts his book down and slips his shoes back on, sliding out of the tent and watching for other people in Senior who were walking towards the Lodge. There was nobody there, which struck Chenle as kind of weird, but he guessed people must just be excited for dinner that night.

Or… _fuck._

Seniors always hopped for the first meal, so that the little Driftwoods didn’t have to hop at their first day at camp. He threw himself off of the stairs and sprinted through Senior, almost slipping on the boardwalk before passing around Patch’s and circling around Cook’s cabin before pausing right near the water tower.

There were people standing behind the Lodge, maybe two of them, and Chenle stopped to look at them. They were kind of sitting on the trip picnic table, really close together. Chenle creeped closer, and saw that they were actually sitting on top of each other and _holy shit_ they were kissing.

Chenle approached slowly, trying to stay behind something so that they didn’t see him while also trying to get to the Lodge faster.

They pull apart and Chenle takes another step forward, squinting a little bit before it sinks in. Holy shit. _Holy shit_. That’s Mark. And Donghyuck, the Arts and Crafts counsellor who had made the sign for him.

They had been kissing behind the Lodge, right in the open for anyone to see.

And Chenle had seen. They walked onto the deck around the Lodge together and as soon as they had gone all the way around Chenle rushed up into the Lodge, looking around at the tables before sliding into one of the seats, deciding to hop there since he could see that Jisung was with other people on the other end of the Lodge.

He sat through dinner and the small presentations about mail and swim safety, rushing back to the section fast, whipping around to see if Jisung was there. He made it back to the tent, and sat back down on his bed, tapping his leg on the ground until Jisung peeked his head into the tent, and Chenle almost fell off of his bed to get over to him.

“Chenle, we have to get out there for EP, what are you doing?”

“Jisung, holy shit, get in here.”

Chenle grabs Jisung by the shoulder and drags him further into the tent, shoving him up against Jeongin’s bed, eyes wide. 

“You will _never_ believe what I saw!”

— 

The two walk out of the tent, Chenle rushing to get to the circle while Jisung took a bit longer still trying to digest what Chenle had told him. Circle was probably not the right word for what the Seniors had created, as oblong circle-esque shape would have been more accurate. Whatever it was shaped like, that’s where all of them would be playing EP for the night.

It went by smoothly, the counsellors having organized a game of Werewolf for the section (Chenle was the peeking girl, and had a lot of fun figuring out who the werewolves were on the first night before they killed him on the second for being too obvious.) The game lasted until the trippers walked into the section, where the counsellors called it off so that people could sign up for trip.

Jisung and Chenle looked at each other for a second during the explanation, Jisung nodding at him and signalling that he had not gone on trip in the first two weeks and had been waiting for Jisung to show up to go.

After the explanation was over, the two rushed over to where the trippers were standing to sign up.

“Yuta!” Jisung cried, and the brown haired man looked up and smiled at them.

“Jisung!” He snatched Jisung from beside Chenle and buried his hand in his hair, rubbing it to Jisung’s loud protests. “And Chenle, how are you? We missed you earlier this month.”

Chenle smiled easily at him.

“So, you two want to sign up for trip?” Yuta asks, grabbing a clipboard from the tree stump behind them.

“Yeah! An overnight!” Jisung says, leaning over to watch Yuta write their names on the clipboard.

“There you go boys,” Yuta smiles and ruffles Jisung’s hair again, the younger pouting and pulling away, bumping into Chenle and deciding to grab his hand, pulling him down towards the shoreline and Chenle’s hammock to talk more about what had happened, what Chenle had seen before dinner.

Chenle was just sort of excited to spend his evening with Jisung again. He had missed doing this, spending time with his best friend, and was really looking forward to spending the next two weeks hanging out with him on a daily basis.

He really was excited to be back at camp.

* * *

Jisung is really glad he had requested to wait before going on trip this summer.

Truth be told, he hadn’t known if Chenle was coming to camp that year or not. It’s always a gamble, since they don’t really talk to each other during the year, but every year without fail Chenle has shown up at some point during August, whether for the whole month, the first two weeks or even the last two, like this year.

Trip was something they had been going on together ever since they became friends in Driftwood 5 at 9 years old, in Jisung’s first year of camp (Chenle’s second). Ever since their first Driftwood overnight they had been going on trip with each other, and Jisung was happy that this year wouldn’t be any different.

They packed the night before with Mark, Chenle loudly protesting the fact that Mark wouldn’t be their counsellor on trip and Jisung quietly rejoicing that Renjun was the CIT for their trip, so at least they would be with someone else they know instead of just Jeongin, the rest of the trip being with people they were acquaintances with and Lucas and Ten, the swimming counsellor for Jisung’s Fun & Fit class who everyone in the class outwardly loved but inwardly hated at the same time and the one tripper Chenle and him had never had.

That morning, as was normal, they walked out of breakfast early to get to the canoes that they would paddle off of the island in.

Chenle jumped at the chance of sitting in the middle of the canoe (zero canoeing badges, the loser) with Jisung at the bow and Renjun at the stern, steering them. Jisung wasn’t completely confident that Renjun knew _how_ to stern a canoe but that really wasn’t his priority. 

That morning Chenle had told him his plan to ask the camp staff on their trip (maybe not Ten, he was too preoccupied with Hendery and his activity to pay attention to Mark and Donghyuck. Maybe, Jisung hoped, Chenle would be lucky enough to ask Lucas. Him and Mark were close, so maybe he would know something about what was going on.

Soon Jisung found himself in the middle of the lake with Renjun and Chenle, both of them paddling lazily and keeping them very _very_ behind the two other canoes. Jisung felt an encroaching feeling of dread.

“So, Renjun, what’s up in the Palace these days?” Chenle asked, leaning back over the yoke to look at Renjun upside down. 

“You don’t actually care,” Renjun said, stroking his paddle up and splashing Chenle with water. Chenle shrieked and Jisung giggled at his best friend’s pain.

“Yeah I do…how’re Jaemin and Jeno doing?”

“Jaemin’s a Senior.”

“And? How’s he doing?”

Renjun sighed, and Jisung could almost hear him melt at the thought of his boyfriends.

“They’re good Lele.”

Renjun then said something in Chinese that had Chenle choking on his spit and coughing loudly, making Jisung turn around to see if he was ok.

Chenle hissed something back and Jisung looked between the two, confused. 

“Yeah, sure,” Renjun said, looking at Jisung weirdly before he turned back to the water, watching it swirl as he paddled.

“ _Back to the topic on hand_ ,” Chenle said, “Renjun, do you know any hot counselor goss?”

“Never say hot goss again and I might actually dignify that with an answer.”

Jisung snorted.

“Look, do you know anything about Mark and Donghyuck yes or no?”

Renjun shoved Chenle, rocking the canoe a little bit. Jisung clasped a death grip on the sides of the canoe. No way was he going to die from Chenle and Renjun being idiots.

“No I don’t know anything about Mark and Donghyuck except for the base facts that you already know,” Renjun said, and Jisung could hear him smirking.

“You’re withholding pertinent information from an officer of the law,” Chenle said, pointing a finger gun at Renjun and just altogether abandoning pretending to paddle, “you either cooperate or be shot.”

“Shoot me, I dare you,” Renjun said, and Chenle made multiple _pew_ noises that Jisung found absolutely adorable.

“Hey!” Ten suddenly yelled from across the lake, “hurry up! We’re getting to the first portage, you can’t be tired already!”

Jisung sighed in relief as the other two people in the canoe started actually paddling and Jisung didn’t need to carry their entire weight anymore. He stopped paddling for a second to rest his arms.

“Jisung!” Renjun calls from the back of the canoe, “no slacking off! Paddle like the rest of us!”

Jisung groaned, all hopes of rest and their—Chenle and Renjun—previous conversation (and Renjun _knowing something_ , because he definitely did) dashed from his mind as he focused on paddling as little as he could without being yelled at.

He could tell this was going to be a long overnight.

* * *

Lucas was spread out on the washing rock, the campsite quiet as Jackson (the loudest) had decided that him and Mark (honestly, also one of the loudest) were going to go adventuring in the woods, maybe to find a bear or something. Lucas was sure they wouldn’t find anything, but he had sent Renjun with them anyway.

Ten was sitting with Jeongin and Namjoon, Namjoon telling them riddles and Jeongin figuring them out quickly, both boys taking great joy in Ten’s complete and utter lack of logical thinking. Lucas was amazed that Ten hadn’t abandoned them to complain about it to him yet, but people surprise you every day.

As for Jisung and Chenle, they were sitting on the edge of the rock, leaning on each other with their toes dipped into the water, letting it lap up to their ankles.

Lucas tuned into their conversation, eyes still fixed on the shifting clouds above him.

“Yeah, that’s right, behind the Lodge again, and then yesterday I saw them talking on that rock that's kind of hidden but that you can see if you go far enough out on the rocks behind Senior 2, you know the one, and like they were holding hands and giggling and lying down and it was kind of cute but also kind of gross, you know the feeling.” Chenle said, words flying out of his mouth at a mile a minute.

“Like you,” Jisung said absentmindedly, making Chenle choke on his spit. Lucas held back a laugh.

“And that means what now?” Chenle hissed. Lucas tore his eyes off of the sky just to watch Jisung’s face turn a bright cherry, and the younger looked down at his hands to start twiddling with his thumbs.

“I just…nothing.”

Chenle hums.

“Yeah, ok, I’ll let it go,” he says, reaching out to twine his fingers with Jisung’s, “so do you think Mark and Donghyuck are dating? This is like…pretty convincing evidence. Not to mention Donghyuck, like, winks at Mark whenever he walks by to canoeing in a sleeveless shirt. But he does that to Lucas too, so it might just be an inside joke.”

Lucas sat up at the mention of his name, sneaking up behind the boys and wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders.

They jumped apart, hands flying into their laps so fast that Lucas laughs again.

“So, you two think Mark and Hyuck are dating huh?” He says, sliding in between the two sitting on the rock.

“I—you heard that?” Jisung stuttered out, and Lucas pulled him into his chest roughly, unwrapping his arm from around Chenle to mess up Jisung’s hair.

“Hell yes I did,” Lucas said.

They sat there for a second before Chenle shuffled closer, as if about to share a secret.

“So, is it true?” He whispered, “are they dating?”

Lucas chucked and unwrapped himself from around Jisung and Chenle, pushing himself off of the ground.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lucas winked and started walking away from them, leaving behind a shocked Chenle and a spluttering Jisung.

“Are they dating or not?” Jisung cried, slamming his hands down on the rock.

Lucas takes a few more steps into the campsite and burst out laughing, listening to the loud sounds of Chenle and Jisung complaining behind him as he walked away.

* * *

Chenle watched Junmyeon step into Senior Cabin after making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be for rest hour before slipping out of his hammock. (More Senior 9’s hammock, but Chenle has asked Jaemin if he could use it, so that must count for something.)

He slipped his shoes back on, walking up to the tent to leave his book on his bed and ask Jisung if he wanted anything.

“Something from the kitchen?” he asked, and Jisung looked up from his bed.

“Orange? Maybe? If there are grapes get me grapes. There were grapes at lunch.”

Chenle hums, slipping out of the tent and jumping down the stairs. He shuffles past Senior 9 and Jungkook waves at him, Chenle smiling before hurrying across the boardwalk.

He passed Jaemin, Renjun, and Jeno who were all in Renjun’s hammock by the Palace, waving at them and garnering a “Hey, shouldn't you, like, not be here?” from Renjun, the only responsible one.

“He’s fine,” says Jaemin, “did you never sneak out of Senior to get food as a camper?”

“Uh, _no_!”

“Why’d you even ask Jaem you know Junnie’s a square.”

“Am not! I’m dating you two!”

“And that means what now?” 

Chenle decides to walk away.

He sneaks past the main washhouse, waving at Hoseok when he comes out, pack of smarties from tuck that day still clutched in his hand (Chenle himself had taken a kit kat, and traded some kit kat pieces for some of Jungkook’s smarties. Not worth it.). He finally walked up the steps of the Lodge, peering in and through all of the tables and chairs to make sure nobody was there before pushing the door open quietly, placing it back carefully so that it didn’t alert anyone in the kitchen to his presence.

He tiptoed over the wooden floors, sticking as close as he could to the south side, his eyes on the fruit bowl.

A crash sounds from the kitchen and Chenle freezes in his spot, hand raised a bit, poised to shoot into the fruit bowl.

He slowly breathes out, peeking over the counter and scanning the kitchen before his eyes landed on two figures, entwined and pressed up against the counter.

It was Donghyuck, the Arts and Crafts counsellor Chenle had seen kissing Mark behind Cook’s cabin, and Lucas.

What the fuck.

They were making out, and if Chenle squinted he could see a bit of tongue what the— 

Ok, no this was fine, Chenle thought, ducking back behind the counter. It was ok that somebody who could be Mark’s boyfriend was cheating on him with Chenle’s favourite tripper.

Chenle, accompanied by the now obvious sounds of kissing in the background, snuck back out of the Lodge, sprinting back to Senior section, blowing past Renjun, Jaemin, and Jeno (who were now asleep), and Jaehyun, who was making his way to Woodcraft for 3rd and 4th period.

“Chenle what are you—”

“Not now Jaehyun!”

He ran straight into Senior 6, Jisung sitting straight up, “my food!”

“Sorry, nope,” Chenle rushed out.

“What? I’m hungry!” Jisung whined.

“You just ate, Jisung I don’t…I’ll tell you later.”

“Senior! Time for activities!” Mark yells, coming out of Senior Cabin, making Chenle freeze.

“Chenle, what the fuck,” Jisung said.

“Come to canoeing, I’ll tell you, seriously,” Chenle grabbed his hat and his life jacket and raced out of the tent, Jisung following hot on his heels, both of them racing to canoeing for 3rd period.

* * *

Mark’s legs felt burnt. Of course, they weren’t. He had put on a good 8 layers of sunscreen between 3rd period and now, but the black dock always felt a little bit hotter than the rest of canoeing, and he had been sitting there for a good while now.

Canoeing was almost empty, it was 3rd period and all of the Driftwoods that usually occupied the red canoes out in the lake were all at swimming or had come earlier in the day. There were only two boats out on the lake, one of them with Jinki and Hoseok (the one in Centre, not the Lower Senior one) in it, and the other with Jisung and Chenle in it.

He was honestly more worried about Jinki and Hoseok, who he could hear laughing from the dock, than he was about Jisung and Chenle, Chenle had a high level in canoeing, and he was sure that Jisung wouldn’t rock the boat too much.

Even still, he grabbed one of the canoes that they hadn’t put away at the beginning of the period and started paddling out into canoe bay, closer to where Chenle and Jisung were sitting.

“—and then, I crept in because remember that time I got yelled at for not being in the section in Lower Senior? Yeah, so I snuck in and I was just at the bowl when I heard a bang from the kitchen, and I was like ‘Fuck, is someone hurt?’ so I peeked over the counter and guess what I saw?” 

Jisung leans closer to Chenle from his position on the bow seat, and Chenle glanced at Jinki and Hoseok’s boat to make sure it was far enough away before leaning in as well.

“Lucas had Donghyuck pressed up against the counter in the kitchen, Jisung they were making out!” Chenle whispers excitedly.

Mark chokes.

“Right in front of my salad!” Jisung exclaims, and Chenle’s laugh reverberates so loudly that some of the kids at swimming look over.

“Didn’t…weren’t Mark and Donghyuck just kissing the other day?”

But Mark didn’t really register what his campers said they saw, he was preoccupied with thoughts of Donghyuck and Lucas.

Those unsubtle _idiots_ , kissing in the kitchen, out in the open.

He scoffed, starting to paddle back into shore.

He’d have to talk to them about their making-out habits later.

* * *

“What did you do at Woodcraft in 4rd?” Jisung asks, bending down to grab a stick and starting to peel the bark off of it.

“Well, there were some Drifties reciting theory so I couldn’t hang out with Jaehyun. Not that big of a loss though he looked angry today, maybe something happened earlier? I don’t know.” Chenle waved his hands around while he talked and Jisung found himself following Chenle’s hands, hanging off of his every word.

“So then Sehun and I chilled out on the rocks for the whole period—oh, wait!” Chenle reaches into his pocket and pulls out a circle with a messy _CHENJI_ burnt into it, reaching back in to pull out a second, matching one. 

He handed it over and Jisung took it gingerly, holding it in his hands and smiling softly.

“Thank you!”

Chenle linked their arms, pulling Jisung towards the path to Driftwood, crossing by Arts & Crafts. Chenle had forgotten his water bottle at Woodcraft so they were walking back to grab it before dinner started.

“Ok cool, cool, so Sehun and I were on the rocks the whole period, and he told me about Junmyeon, he was here in July this year you know, asshole knows I wanted to see him again, anyway he was talking about how Junmyeon and him had—woah what the…”

Chenle stops in his tracks, Jisung being jerked back from his momentum.

“Chenle what is—”

“Shh,” Chenle said, reaching over and putting his hand over Jisung’s mouth.

“Look.”

Chenle pointed, Jisung following his finger, his gaze ending up inside the art building, scanning over Mark, Donghyuck, and Lucas who were sitting at one of the tables.

“Holy shit,” Jisung whispers, “what are they doing?”

“Gotcha? You know it’s going on.”

“Can’t be, they’re holding hands.”

“They’re what? How can you see that?”

“I’m tall Chenle, I can see everything.”

“Oh, shit look they saw us.”

Chenle and Jisung both looked as Donghyuck waved at them, Lucas laughing in the background and Mark looking like he regretted his entire life.

“Hi!” Jisung said, waving back.

“ _Why are you waving let’s go_!”

Chenle grabs Jisung’s arm and pulls him away.

“You’re overreacting,” Jisung scoffs, “how could they have known we were standing there for like over a minute…”

Laughter exploded from behind them.

“Jisung they _just_ heard you.” 

“ _Fuck_.”

* * *

Senior Switch was probably the best day of camp.

Chenle, having no qualifications other than multiple Keeners and Super Keeners, was stationed at Arts & Crafts. Of course, as was normal for Arts & Crafts on Senior Switch, every single person had come to do the craft of the day (again, as was usual, tie dye) on 1st period.

Some other people had been coming in for 2nd and 3rd period, but now it was 4th and the only people who were there were Chenle (and his co-”counsellors”, Seungkwan and Dowoon) along with Mark and Donghyuck, who were huddled over 3 white shirts which they were tye-dying.

Seungkwan and Dowoon were hanging out around the back of the A&C building, either talking about Senior shit or shooting each other with dye, Chenle didn’t really care. He was mostly focused on Mark and Donghyuck, who were hoarding red, blue, and yellow dye, applying them on the same patterns on each of the shirts.

Chenle watched Mark fuck it up (he might have laughed at him, causing Mark to glare and point at him and the shirt he was wearing, which he had been wiping his hands on all day), Donghyuck swatting at him while trying to plaster annoyance over the endeared smile trying to fight its way onto his face.

Donghyuck’s shirts turned out better than the one Mark had done, and Chenle watched Hyuck stand up straight, placing his foot on the bench and loudly announcing that “Mark Lee, the messed up shirt is yours.”

Chenle burst out into laughter, and Donghyuck looked slightly proud of himself, but his loud proclamation attracted them some attention.

“What’s this about Mark messing up one of our shirts?” Lucas’ booming voice asks, jumping up all of the steps to the deck.

His eyes flew over Chenle and he smiled widely, changing his path from Mark and Donghyuck to walk over and shove his hand into Chenle’s hair, messing it up violently.

“Lucas!” Chenle cries indignantly, swatting the tripper’s hand away. Lucas laughs, grabbing Chenle’s shoulders and shaking him a little bit, making him pout before going back over to Mark and Donghyuck, snatching up one of she shirts in front of them. 

“Did you do this one Hyuckie?” He asks, raising the shirt to the sky, the colours shining through the shirt. Donghyuck give him a wide smile and hums and Lucas turns to him with an expression Chenle had never seen on his face before. Something between caring and adoration maybe, or maybe something deeper. 

“It’s amazing,” Lucas says, and it’s enunciated in a way that Chenle feels like he shouldn’t be listening to it. It feels tender, and for some reason Chenle thinks of Jisung.

“Thank you,” Donghyuck says, wrapping an arm around Mark’s shoulders, “but you can’t discredit Mark and the work he did. He got the centre.”

The centre of the shirt was a muddy black colour, yet Lucas smiled warmly at it and grabbed Mark’s head, pulling him into his side in some sort of weird modified hug. 

“I love it, thank you both,” Lucas says, and Chenle decides that this is his cue to leave, the moment getting a little bit _too_ tender for him. He moves around the side of the patio to join Seungkwan and Dowoon who are talking about EP that night and the Harry Potter theme that the Lower Seniors had come up with. (Chenle and Jisung were the special ones that night, hiding deep in the forest and keeping the so called ‘Golden Snitch’ which was really one of the chickens they usually used for Capture The Flag. It was going to be amazing.)

When he next looked around the side of the porch to where Mark and Donghyuck were Lucas and his shirt) were gone, and the two counsellors (Seniors today) were sitting there laughing like idiots. Chenle didn’t know if it was his imagination but he thought Mark’s hair looked a bit more messed up than it had been before.

Whatever, Chenle thought while cleaning up the dyes. He was probably overthinking it. He’d consult with Jisung later, but for now he’d focus on both cleaning up and making sure Seungkwan didn’t stain Dowoon’s skin blue.

* * *

Chenle dropped himself into the hammock beneath him, landing straight on Jisung and accidentally shoving the other boy’s book into his face, the spine landing right on Chenle’s spine.

The hammock rocked wildly as it tried to accommodate the new addition as well as the flailing of its previous inhabitant.

“Dude— _fuck_ ! Chenle _why_?” Jisung jerked around frantically for a few seconds before settling in a comfortable position and wrapping his arms around Chenle’s waist, Chenle himself resting his head on Jisung’s chest as Jisung lets go of him and picks his book up again to continue reading it, balancing it on Chenle’s head.

Chenle shifts a bit, snatching his IPod from his pocket before opening it and pressing shuffle on his library, settling it beside his face, shuffling again to get comfortable.

“Chenle, what are you doing?” Jisung whispers, and Chenle groans and buries his head further into Jisung’s chest, EXO’s Unfair playing softly beside his head.

“Chenle,” Jisung said again, and Chenle raised his arms and wrapped them around Jisung, cuddling further into him.

“Sleeping,” Chenle mumbled.

“Chenle look.”

Chenle pushes himself up a bit and looks at Jisung, whose eyes were fixed on a canoe paddling out from canoe beach towards the mainland. 

“Is that…”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Both Chenle and Jisung’s eyes followed the canoe, containing both Mark and Lucas, who were both on half-day and paddling away from the island. Chenle leaned over, closer to the edge of the hammock, squinting to try and focus more on the two in the boat.

“What are they doing?” Jisung mumbled, dropping his book and letting his arm grab back onto Chenle’s sweater. Chenle smiled slightly.

“No idea,” Chenle said back.

The canoe goes further into the distance and Jisung and Chenle watch it. The song switches to Cocktail by Jonghyun.

Suddenly, just at the canoe is about to exit the boys’ field of sight, one of the figures leans forward, prompting the other to do so as well. Chenle follows the cue unconsciously, leaning over so far that both him and Jisung fall off of the hammock.

“What the _fuck_!” Jisung yells, turning to Chenle wide-eyed. Chenle’s eyes linger on the water for a few more seconds before he turns to Jisung, leaving the two sitting on the rocks beneath a twisted hammock.

“What the hell just happened?” Breathed out Chenle. They both turned back to the water for a few seconds before turning back to each other.

Jisung stood up wordlessly and untwisted the hammock, getting back into it and peering over the side at Chenle. “Well?”

Chenle grabbed his IPod off of the rocks, checking for cracks (none, thank god) before climbing back into the hammock, lying back down on Jisung’s chest and placing his IPod back where it was before, falling into a half-slumber state as Jisung read his book.

It’s quiet for a few seconds.

“Markcas stays winning.”

Chenle hits Jisung.

“Shut _up_!”

* * *

“Hey? You busy?”

Mark’s head snapped up from where he was fiddling with popsicle sticks that were ground, eyes landing on Lucas’ smiling face.

“Kind of,” Mark said, rubbing the back of his neck. Lucas giggled, slipping under the deck along with him, crouching comically low as to not hit his head. He adjusted himself awkwardly, Mark’s laughter attracting two U kids who put their hands out for a popsicle stick.

Lucas adjusted himself on the floor, leaning his head on Mark’s shoulder and watching him give out popsicle sticks to every kid that passed by.

“Lucas!” Chenle cried, sticking his head under the deck. Jisung stuck his head under alongside him, and Chenle took that as his cue to crouch under the deck as well, plopping himself into Mark’s lap.

“Maaark,” Chenle whines, “give us eight popsicle sticks.”

Mark looks over at Lucas, who looks vaguely amused at Chenle’s antics.

“Only one,” Mark says, handing one to Jisung, who thanks him.

Chenle sighs and leans back onto Lucas, peering up at him. Lucas looks down and makes a stupid face, making Chenle laugh.

“Lucas, get Mark to give us another popsicle stick,” Chenle whines, lifting his arms up to hug Lucas, burying his face into the brunet’s stomach.

“Babe, give the kids another popsicle stick,” Lucas said, pouting at Mark.

Mark, Jisung, and Chenle all choked, Jisung flinching so hard he hit his head on the bottom of the deck.

Mark spluttered, shoving Chenle off of his lap and burying his face into Lucas’ shoulder.

“I hate you,” Mark sputtered, not watching as Chenle and Jisung left.

Lucas, however, was, and as soon as they exited the small space Lucas collapsed into laughter.

“Go-o-od, you should have _seen_ their _faces_ Mark!” Lucas yelled, his loud laughter echoing in the tight space.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Mark mumbled, and Lucas wrapped an arm around Mark’s shoulders, hugging him close.

“Don’t worry. If they’re oblivious about themselves how could they find out anything about us?”

* * *

Big Buddies might just be Jisung’s favourite part of camp this year. 

Watching Jaemin and others (but mostly Jaemin because he couldn’t bring himself to get mad at the fucking rascals like Jihoon or Sungjin) deal with the Driftwoods from his standpoint of the back of the A&C porch was honestly a highlight of his days, and today wasn’t any different. 

Jaebum and Chris were currently trying to get two of the kids to not throw wood chips at each other (it wasn’t going well) and Jaemin was playing hide and seek with another one (Jisung actually knew this one Minhee. He was cool, or as cool as a 9 year old with a mild to severe obsession with pirates and lego could be.) Minhee was switching places every single time Jaemin would come close to finding him and Jisung found himself laughing at both Jaemin’s annoyance and stupidity.

Suddenly he heard a loud groan coming from behind the fish bowl, making him frown. It sounded vaguely like a groan of pain, and he had to help someone who was hurt. Last time he had left something like this alone he had almost broken his leg after, and he was convinced it was karma for not helping that poor kid. (In his defense, the kid’s parents _were_ there, they were just completely incompetent and unaware that their son had twisted his ankle. Sometimes Jisung still felt bad, but the ice cream he had went to get was one of the best he had had in his life.)

He peered around the side of the Fishbowl, taking another cautious step towards the shoreline before the source of the weird noise came into view.

It was a hammock with two people in it, and Jisung was thrown back to when Chenle had plopped down on top of him in his hammock, when he had had almost the exact same reaction as whoever this was had had.

Jisung could hear muffled voices from the hammock, and he watched through the trees as one of the figures, who was illuminated by the sun, leaned down to kiss the other. _On the lips_.

Jisung took another step closer, earnestly wanting to hear who was in the hammock, wanting to know who the hell had just kissed in a hammock at camp because while that was cheesy as hell he could use it as blackmail against them and it _might_ _just_ get him extra tuck for a few days, which was all anyone wanted really.

The next time he stepped forward however, he stepped right onto a stick, causing a loud, sharp crack to ring out in the practically silent space. Jisung froze. A Driftwood screeched in the background.

“‘Cas? Did you hear that? Was that a Driftwood?”

Jisung jumped behind a tree just as Mark stuck his head over the side of the hammock, peeking around the side a little bit to watch Mark shoot a worried gaze towards the Driftwoods.

“It’s probably nothing babe, don’t worry and lie back down,” another voice (that Jisung knew, but couldn’t place) said, and Jisung almost gasped loudly enough to expose himself after the _babe_.

So Mark _did_ have a boyfriend, him and Chenle _were_ right! The only thing was…that other voice didn’t sound a whole lot like Donghyuck. So if Mark had kissed Donghyuck _and_ whoever this was…was he cheating?

Jisung creeped away, mind occupied with the thoughts of his sweet counselor _cheating_. It didn’t seem possible but…could it be? He’d have to consult with Chenle later.

Jisung was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he never figured out who that other voice belong to, and didn’t see Mark and Lucas stumble up from the shoreline laughing and walking towards Centre cabin, where Donghyuck opened the door to meet them.

—

“No way, I don’t believe it. Mark would literally never do that. He’s too much of a softie. Remember when he almost cried because Junnie had to kill a moth that flew into the tent and was attacking Hao? How could he cheat?”

Chenle and Jisung were walking towards the Lodge for dinner (they were sort-of early. It was Greek night and they wanted to sit with Mingi because he always let them get extra tzatziki sauce when Yunho was sitting near them), nearing the turn after Patch’s that would take them in front of the Palace. 

“But Lele I saw him and someone! It was literally his face!” Jisung said, and Chenle shoved him.

“I know, idiot. I believe you in that sense, but Mark would literally never cheat on someone—oh holy shit Jisung stop.”

Chenle grabbed Jisung’s arm and pulled him towards the side of the Palace, out of view of whatever he had seen.

“Mark and Donghyuck are standing on the porch of Centre cabin,” Chenle whispers, and Jisung scoffs.

“It’s more suspicious that we hid. Just keep walking.” He makes a move to leave their hideout spot.

“ _No_ Jisung what if they see us?” Chenle asks, “how will I face Mark?”

“He’s our counsellor? You’ll have to face him sometime?” Jisung half says-half asks, grabbing Chenle by the arm and dragging him out of their hiding spot.

Mark and Donghyuck do not notice them as they pass by because they seem to be engrossed in their own little world. Donghyuck is leaned up against the railing of the balcony on the cabin and Mark’s arm is wrapped around him, pulling them close together.

They were both laughing at something—probably that Donghyuck said, Mark is just inherently unfunny—and Donghyuck leaned onto Mark’s shoulder, pillowing his head there as laughs wracked his body.

The two boys continued walking silently past the intimate moment, Jisung letting out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding once they reached the Centre Washhouse. 

It was quiet.

“What the fuck was that?” Chenle whisper-screamed, turning to Jisung with a bewildered expression.

“I…do not know,” Jisung said simply.

Their shoulders bumped as they continued to walk to the Lodge in silence, both stuck in their thoughts.

“Do…Jisung do you think that Mark is actually cheating on Donghyuck?”

“I don’t know, Chenle. I don’t know.”

Even extra tzatziki doesn’t cheer them up that night, and during tentle time they both pretend to fall asleep so they don’t have to talk to Mark. 

They’ll confront him tomorrow, definitely.

* * *

It was the last night of camp. Tomorrow Jisung would be sending his luggage out for it to be loaded up on the bus and Chenle would be being picked up by helicopter on Turtle Rock, which had been the site of their tentle dinner on Sunday. They would be getting separated for another year, Chenle with another (eight) slips of paper with Jisung’s phone number on them and Jisung with the faint hope that Chenle might text him this year, this year for sure.

But, for now, the two got dressed up for banquet, mentally preparing themselves to stuff their faces with traditional American Thanksgiving food in the name of friendship and sadness.

“Hey,” Jisung said, sitting on his bed in cargo shorts and a wrinkled short-sleeve button-up shirt, contrasting with Chenle’s professional golfer kind of look, polo shirt and all.

Chenle looked away from the mirror hanging from the ceiling of their tent for a second, showing that he was listening before turning back to continue applying the peach-blue eyeshadow gradient onto his eyes.

“I…how did these two weeks go by so fast, yet two weeks during the year seem to go by so slow.”

Chenle looked away from the mirror again, looking back and silently dabbing his face with a brush (Jisung didn’t really understand what he was doing but it looked _pretty_ interesting) again before putting his stuff down on his bed and coming over to Jisung’s plopping down beside him and lying his head on his shoulder.

“Maybe because we’re not together during the year Jisungie. We’re magic together, and we make time go faster. It’s magic.”

Jisung hums, groping for Chenle’s hand and lacing their fingers together.

“I’m gonna cry so much tonight.”

“I know. It’s ok though, I have pocket tissues.”

Jisung lets out a wet laugh and Chenle raises his head off of his shoulder, brushing the tears away with the pads of his thumb.

Jisung was suddenly acutely aware of how close they were, their faces only about 5 centimeters apart.

He didn’t know if he was imagining it, but he thought Chenle leaned even closer, tilting his head a little bit before Jeongin burst into the tent, looking around wildly.

Chenle and Jisung broke apart fast enough that if Jisung had been leaning back he would have gotten a concussion from ramming his head into wooden frame of the canvas tent.

“Oh, shit, I was just looking for my hairbrush, did I interrupt something?” Jeongin asked, panting. He didn’t wait for an answer before he spotted the brush and rushed back out of the tent, jumping down most of the steps and sprinting away.

Chenle coughed and stood back up, leaving Jisung on the bed to go over what had just happened.

_What the fuck had just happened_.

— 

Chenle steadied the candle in his hand as he walked down to front rocks.

Dinner and dessert+speeches had gone smoothly, Chenle eating all of his sweets within the first 5 minutes and begging Jisung for some of his (Jisung, seemingly distracted, had given him some) and now they were walking down to deposit their candles in the lake and sing songs until it was time to go to bed like was tradition.

Chenle pushed his candle out on the water, watching it disappear into the distance while groping for Jisung’s (standing beside him, because of course he was) hand.

The two went to sit where the rest of their tent was, a chorus of CITs behind him starting up Hey, Soul Sister by Train.

“Chenle,” Jisung whispered to him.

Chenle turned to face Jisung, whose face was barely illuminated by the stars and moon overhead. Beautiful.

Chenle nodded to him, still belting out the lyrics along with the CITs, but a bit more focused on the way the light lay itself lightly on Jisung’s cheekbones.

“Where’s Mark.”

Chenle stopped singing.

“What do you mean _where’s Mark_ shouldn’t he be—” Chenle looked around, “holy shit where’s Mark?”

“Bathroom?”  
  
“Bathroom.”

They both stood up and walked away, mouthing _bathroom_ to Jaehyun when he shot them a glance.

They rushed around the Lodge, hands still unconsciously locked together, looking around in the blackness to try and differentiate trees from shapes and tree roots from the ground.

“Hey, let’s stop for a second,” Chenle whispered, finally pulling Jisung to a stop right before the path split off towards Arts & Crafts and Lower Senior.

“What’s up—oh,” Jisung whispered back, suddenly becoming aware of the quiet, wet sounding noises coming from the other side of the Centre Washhouse.

“Luca-a-as,” a voice half complained, half moaned quietly, “they’re going to be done soon we need to get b—”

“You talk too much,” Lucas said, before the wet noises started up again.

“Not that high,” another voice cautioned, and Jisung turned to Chenle in shock, mouthing a ‘Mark?’.

“He _is_ right though. My kids are perceptive, especially Chenle and Jisung. They’ll’ve noticed I’m gone,” Mark said.

“See?” The first voice whined.

A distant chorus of _Goodnight Driftwoods_ rung out.

“It’s almost time for Hyuckie’s kids to go, and you should be cleaning,” Mark said.

Hyuckie. Donghyuck.

“Holy shit,” Chenle whispered, gripping 

“Fine,” Lucas says, and there’s a bit of rustling before it registers in Chenle’s mind that they should _fucking move_ before the three see them. This realization comes seconds too late as a swollen-lipped Mark, a heavily disheveled Donghyuck, and Lucas (looking perfect, somehow) round the corner, Mark’s eyes meeting Chenle’s in the dark.

Chenle feels a spike of adrenaline rush through his brain, but his body still doesn’t move.

“Bathroom,” Jisung squeaks out, and Mark tears his gaze away from Chenle to look at Jisung as well.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” is what he decides to say, and Donghyuck hits him.

“It’s literally exactly what it looks like, Mark,” he says, and Mark sighs.

“Look, if you two could just…not tell anyone. Please.” Mark says, waving an arm around slightly to emphasize his point.

“So…” Jisung starts, and Mark sighs, “this whole time we thought you were cheating on Donghyuck but you’re…not?”

Lucas busts out a laugh and Donghyuck lets out a sigh of relief.

“Mark’s too soft to cheat,” he says, and Chenle brightens up.

“That’s what I said! If he couldn’t kill a moth how could he cheat?”

Donghyuck gives Chenle a high five.

“We’re all dating,” Lucas explains, wrapping an arm around Mark and Dongyuck’s waists respectively.

“Like Jeno, Jaemin, and Renjun,” Donghyuck says, and Jisung turns to Chenle.

“How did we not think of that?” He asks incredulously, and Chenle shrugs, looking back at the couple standing before them.

“So that time with Mark and Donghyuck behind Cook’s? And when Mark and Lucas were in the kitchen? And at A&C? Both times? And when Lucas and Mark were in the canoe? And I bet that was you two in the hammock as well. And Mark and Donghyuck in front of Centre Cabin?” Chenle lists off, and Mark sighs.

“My boyfriends are stupid and can’t stay off of each other or me,” Donghyuck clarifies, and Jisung scrunches his nose.

“You asked.”

“ _He_ asked.”

Chenle laughs.

“Well Mark, I’m glad you aren’t actually cheating on anyone, because that would be a pretty shitty thing to do,” Chenle says, “but we should probably get back now.”

He points a thumb back towards front rocks just as a chorus of _Goodnight Centres_ starts, and Donghyuck gets a panicked kiss onto Mark and Lucas’ cheeks before he sprints away.

“You two…” Mark starts, and Lucas takes that as his cue to go, kissing Mark softly (making Chenle and Jisung look away) before heading back to the Lodge to help with cleaning up. 

“We won’t tell anyone Mark,” Jisung says, and Mark sighs.

“You better not,” Mark threatens, no real venom behind the statement.

“Head back to front rocks,” Chenle says, “Jisung and I will go back to the tent first ok?”

“Ok,” Mark says, wrapping the two in a hug, “see you for tentle time?”

“Of course,” Jisung says.

With that Mark sets off in the direction Donghyuck had gone in and Chenle and Jisung watch him before heading back towards Senior section.

There’s a conversation they need to have.

**Author's Note:**

> [ **my cc** ](https://curiouscat.me/ry_dellon)
> 
> [ **my twt** ](https://twitter.com/ry_dellon)


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